Dear Family and Friends,
It has been another busy week. We started with apartment inspections in Thomasville and Demopolis on Monday. We always enjoy doing inspections because we get to visit with the missionaries and hear how the work is going. Elder Waltman just transferred in to Thomasville. He is from Middleton, Idaho. They told us about the Smith family they found and started teaching. After their first lesson the family said they had some relatives and wondered if they might be able to sit in on the next lesson (duh). Everybody on the street they live on is related and they all seem to be interested. The elders told us there are about thirty of them. About a month ago President Sainsbury asked all the missionaries to start praying everyday for more converts and more baptisms in the mission. It's exciting to see how our prayers are being answered.
We didn't schedule anything for Tuesday since we had to have our car in the shop in the morning. It was supposed to be ready about 11:00 AM and we got a call about 10:00 to let us know they found a couple parts that have to be replaced and they had to order them so the car wouldn't be ready until around 4:00 PM. At 3:30 they called again to tell us the mechanic punctured something putting it back together and they couldn't get the replacement part until the next day. We ended up getting the car back at 11:30 the next morning. It's neat to see how the Lord takes care of the details in this work. We had the Selma and Greenville inspections scheduled for Friday morning and afternoon. We got a call from the Sisters in Greenville telling us they had to reschedule so Wednesday at 2:00 PM was the only time that would work out. We felt bad because Selma is right on the way to Greenville, but we really didn't think we would be able to reschedule the Selma inspection on such short notice so we would just have to go back Friday for their inspection. We just picked up the car and were getting ready to go to Greenville when we got a text from the Selma Elders telling us they had to go to a meeting at the mission office Friday and wondered if we could do the inspection on Saturday. We responded and told them we could do that unless they would be around in about an hour and we could stop on the way to Greenville and take care of it then. They were available so we got both the inspections done on Wednesday and were only fifteen minutes late for Greenville. What about that tree? On our way from Selma to Greenville we saw a cotton field being harvested. It was very interesting to see. We stopped to take a short video of the harvester doing its work. There were some workers there so we asked one of them if we might get a piece of cotton from one of the plants that had been harvested. He said that would be fine and asked if we wanted a whole plant that hadn't been harvested. I told him that would be great and would make my wife very happy. He went out and uprooted a plant and brought it to us (attachment #1). Sister Owens got out of the car and came to thank him. He said it was no problem, they have about 23,000 others so it wouldn't be missed.
Thursday was another really good day. We had our interviews with the President. He and his wife are always so inspiring. Sister Owens asked the President about reading a book that is not on the approved list for missionaries. He informed us that senior couples can do "anything they want" reinforcing the fact that senior missionaries really do "get away with murder." He said he really did mean that. He said we should tell the young missionaries to go home and get married and convince their spouses to go on a mission with them and then they can do anything they want. After interviews we had our district council. The missionaries always split up and conduct phone audits as part of the meeting where they check the history of each other's phones for the past week. The seniors don't participate in that and now that we have another senior couple in the district we had some one to visit with. He is an engineer from silicon valley and he monopolized the conversation wondering what kind of physics God uses to accomplish his work. It was really quite an interesting conversation. When we were through the district leader mentioned to me that it sounded like a very interesting conversation we were having. He started to ask a question and said he better wait until later. He never did ask the question. I was curious what it might have been.
Friday we got to take Cedric and Tasha and their two girls to the temple (attachment #2). The Raybons (attachment #3) that the sisters have been meeting with (they came to church last week) drove and took the sisters with them. When we got there Cedric and Tasha went in to do baptisms and their girls stayed outside and toured the grounds with the Raybons and Sister Shreeve and Sister Owens. Elias Smith is one of the youth in the ward that was just ordained a priest about a month ago. He baptized Cedric and Tasha. They were baptized for ancestors of the Owens and the Smiths. Cedric served as witness when Tasha was baptized. Brother Smith and I got to perform the confirmations. Cedric is going in for hip replacement surgery tomorrow. They told him he will probably miss about six weeks of work during recuperation.
We definitely have more apartment to clean on Saturday than we used to. I'm having to help now (darn). We are really starting to miss the senior couple outings. We haven't had one now for several weeks. None of us wanted to do anything outside during the summer anyway. As a matter of fact we drove over to our walking path Saturday morning with the windows down. The first time they have been down since we arrived in Alabama. It was only 69 degrees when we left. It's the first time the temperature has been that low since we left Utah in March. Of course it was approaching 80 degrees by the time we were driving home. It was almost 9:00 AM.
So Sunday when I came out of Branch Presidency meeting and went in to the chapel I saw Brother White at the Sacrament table. I think it had to be the highlight of my week. It was so good to hear him bless the sacrament again with Brother Borden. President James bore his testimony today and said how much he loves and appreciates Brother White. He said if Brother White can get out of bed, he knows he will be there on Sunday to bless the sacrament. Brother White bore his testimony also. He told about he and his sister having surgery the same day and finding out while he was still in the hospital that his sister had passed away. He told Sister Owens, before he went home, that he is rounding up his herd next week. Before his surgery he always brought two or three brethren with him to church. None of them have been there since his surgery. The stake clerk visited the branch today. I got to spend time with him during third hour. He went over some things with me and then I thought of a couple questions that I had been wanting answers to, so I asked him. He said he would really like to know about that himself. He asked me to call Salt Lake this week and then to call him and let him know what I found out. That makes it sound like he doesn't know his job, but he really is a very good clerk and a spiritual man. When he left he told President James that I had asked him a couple questions that he had never really considered. That is just the branch. We just have really weird situations that take some complicated clerk work in order to get the records correct.
We had an interesting "South" thing happen again today. In Branch Presidency meeting we were talking about different things we can do to encourage reverence as we start our sacrament meeting. President James suggested that we might turn the volume up on the prelude music about five minutes to the hour. Thinking they would just start talking louder so they could be heard, I suggested that he might consider turning the volume down. When I went in to the chapel and sat down by Sister Owens I wondered why there was no prelude music playing. It was really strange (and uncomfortable). The organist was just sitting there at the organ and not playing. It was very quite, though. No one was saying a word. Then when President James bore his testimony he related what we had discussed in Branch Presidency meeting and that he had suggested turning up the volume. Then he said Brother Owens suggested we just "turn it off" (excuse me) so that is what we did this morning and he thanked everyone for their reverence and said it was really easy to feel the spirit. Also when Brother White was bearing his testimony there were a couple people in the congregation that were having a really hard time stifling their hallelujahs and amens.
We will be driving to transfers this Wednesday. President Sainsbury confirmed during interviews that we will be losing Sister Snarr. She started her mission here eighteen weeks ago Wednesday. We will miss her but know that she will have some great experiences as she moves on to other areas and other companions. We will probably see her from time to time at conferences or transfers. It will be exciting, too, to have another sister come to Demopolis.
Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon
And listen to the Prophets next weekend
We love y'all,
Elder and Sister Owens
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